Gout and young men

There is information in this guide about the higher prevalence of gout for young Māori and Pacific men. There is also information in this guide about how young men may be reluctant to consider taking a daily uric acid lowering medicine such as allopurinol. Yet addressing gout with them presents the best opportunity to make a difference to these young men’s lives – improving their ability to maintain employment, and participate in a range of family and community activities that are both enjoyable and rewarding.

<aside> ↗️ Learn more from our Gout Guide page on gout education for your team

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Any model of care for this group will require your team to be gently persistent in a similar way to smoking cessation.

Your team will also need to provide flexible access as young men are more likely to be working full-time and may be very reluctant to take time off work to visit the practice for preventative care.

Visiting young men at work or home outside standard practice hours, being at sports and community events on weekends and working with churches,are all examples of how to reach this group.

Being out in the community with young men might also identify a whole group who have not yet been diagnosed with gout but have had gout attacks, who are not going to the practice and instead are treating their attacks with over-the-counter pain relief.

If you have a health improvement practitioner (HIP) in your team, offer the young man with gout a referral to the HIP so they can talk about their concerns regarding taking daily medicine.

Emphasise at all times that gout is not the young man’s fault but instead it is about high levels of uric acid and the fact that their kidneys hold onto uric acid rather than getting rid of it in urine. Discuss the impact that gout is having on the young man, and their whānau, and the benefits if he was gout attack and pain-free.

Incorporate conversations about gout into CVDRA and Diabetes Annual Reviews if relevant and not too overwhelming.

[Podcast] Episode One: Initiating new medicines (part 1)

He Ako Hiringa

Podcast with Professor Keith Petrie about the psychological effects of taking medicines, and what primary healthcare professionals need to know. Keith discusses why prescribers exhibit new medicines hesitancy, how this might impact on the patient, and how to minimise the nocebo effect.

[https://www.akohiringa.co.nz/education/episode-one-initiating-new-medicines-part-1](https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-nuqvs-10ff2f1)

https://www.akohiringa.co.nz/education/episode-one-initiating-new-medicines-part-1